Questions Delay Payment For Dcf Training

July 30, 2004|By Megan O'Matz and Sally Kestin Staff Writers

Allegations of favoritism at Florida's social services agency have left a key contract in limbo, prompting three universities to threaten to stop training child abuse investigators and caseworkers if they are not paid promptly.

The Department of Children & Families is also jeopardizing another program that subsidizes college students who agree to work for DCF or local child welfare agencies after graduation. Seven universities have been awaiting payment from DCF for salaries paid to instructors for the program, said Michelle Hawkins, director of Florida Atlantic University's school of social work.

"We were told we'd have a contract, and it hasn't happened," she said. "We've been told that since January."

The contracts for training child welfare workers, a critical area often faulted in tragic child abuse cases, were supposed to take effect July 1. In mid-April, DCF announced that it would award the contracts to Florida International University, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida.

The department has not signed the training agreements, however, in part because of questions over whether a Titusville company, Upper Mohawk Inc., which UCF subcontracted to train workers in northern Florida, had an unfair advantage in getting the $2 million job. A company executive, Ron Harp, worked for DCF Secretary Jerry Regier in Oklahoma in recent years.

One of the state's lawyers deemed Upper Mohawk's proposal deficient and the contracts administrator warned that it would be illegal to proceed, but Cathleen Newbanks, a top agency administrator, decided to award the contract anyway, records show.

Newbanks on Wednesday said no one at the agency, including Regier, instructed her to give the contract to Upper Mohawk. She said she made the decision after consulting other agency staff, including lawyers who determined that the deficiencies were only "slight irregularities."

Newbanks is resigning Aug. 2 for personal reasons.

The training contracts are also under scrutiny because the proposed agreements differ significantly from the requirements the department originally set forth for the work. DCF is now considering options, including scrapping the contract and starting over with a new bidding process, according to a July 23 memo by Karen Kugell, assistant general counsel.

"It's pretty much just utter confusion," Peter Balitsaris, CEO of ChildNet, the Broward County nonprofit agency that took over child welfare from DCF under privatization.

For the past month, the three universities have been providing and paying for the training.

"We are doing business on our own money," said John Mullins, director of the training consortium at USF. "If we weren't a university, there would be no training going on. A university can underwrite a project with the understanding the state will make good."

USF, which expected to receive $3.8 million a year from DCF, will continue to provide the training at least for the next month, he said, but "it would be almost intolerable" to continue past that without a contract.

"We do not want to disrupt this," Mullins said. "We do not want to walk away from it."

Florida's child welfare system depends on well-trained workers.

"People need to be competent in making decisions about kids' lives," Mullins said. "That's what this is all about. You can't have people out there making decisions about child safety and permanence that aren't trained."

Representatives of FIU, USF and UCF told Bob Fagin, DCF's chief financial officer, this week: "We cannot carry on this way because our respective universities are saying: `Where's the money?'" said Ray Thomlison, dean of FIU's schools of social work, policy and management.

If DCF is unable to begin reimbursing the universities within the next few weeks, Thomlison said, he cannot continue to ask FIU to pay his 30 staff members "on the promise that we're going to get the money." The university, which expected to sign a $2.7 million contract, trains 600 South Florida child welfare workers a year.

Fagin said Thursday that he assured the three universities they will be paid. He is scheduled to report to them today on DCF's position.

"We are keenly aware of the situation and we will not leave them high and dry," Fagin said.

The agency is reviewing its options for paying the universities. DCF is also looking into how the contracts were awarded to ensure they are "in the best interest of the state," said spokesman Bill Spann.

Earlier this month, the governor's chief inspector general issued a highly critical report detailing cronyism between DCF's top leaders and people that do business with the department. DCF's inspector general is following up on some allegations raised but not pursued in that investigation, and the agency is reviewing other contracts, including those awarded to organizations with ties to DCF administrators.

Fagin downplayed any problem in the stipend program for college students, saying the students were being paid but that a "relatively small amount" of money was due the universities.

The program provides one-year stipends of up to $8,000 for undergraduates and graduate students. In return, the students must commit to working at least a year for DCF or local child welfare agencies after they receive their degrees. Several hundred people have passed through the program in recent years.

DCF owes the universities more than $172,000, Hawkins said, and the schools have no final word on the budget for the upcoming year. DCF used to spend about $3 million a year on the program but has cut that to less than $1 million, she said.

Some schools, Hawkins said, have laid off instructors.

FAU has told students "we don't know what's going to happen and not to plan on any stipends," Hawkins said.

Megan O'Matz can be reached at momatz@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4518.